Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, on Wednesday, scoffed at threats of consequences over purported plans to impeach Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara, saying the sky isn’t going to fall if he is impeached.
Wike’s comments came after the Rivers State House of Assembly, led by Martins Amaewhule, on Wednesday, denied Fubara access to the Assembly premises for a re-presentation of the 2025 appropriation bill, which was ordered by the Supreme Court.
The governor said he was prevented from entering the compound, despite the fact that he had notified the Assembly of his intention to visit in view of their request that he re-presented the 2025 appropriation bill.
The relationship between the governor and the legislature, peopled mainly by Wike’s loyalists, soured early in his tenure following political disagreements with his predecessor, now FCT minister.
Things seemed to get quite bad for the governor recently after the Supreme Court reinstated the Amaewhule-led legislators.
But the foremost group of elders from the oil producing region, the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), asked President Bola Tinubu not to consider any party to the crisis superior.
PANDEF urged Tinubu to take decisive steps to resolve the escalating crisis, contending that a win-win outcome must be sought outside the courts.
The group urged the president to prevail on Wike and Fubara to prioritise peace and seek a lasting solution.
At the same time, Ijaw National Congress (INC) reiterated its position that if Fubara was impeached for any reason, the consequences would be too heavy for the Nigerian state to bear economically.
Urging the president to prevail on Wike and Fubara to seek an amicable resolution for the sake of peace and stability, INC said it was concerned by the prolonged political impasse in the state.
However, addressing some of the latest concerns on the Rivers crisis, Wike described PANDEF, whose members met Tinubu to try to proffer solution to the festering political crisis in the state, as an unreliable organisation made up of political merchants, only motivated by money.
Wike, who spoke on a live television interview, said if Fubara had, indeed, breached the tenets of the constitution and the House of Assembly deemed the infraction an impeachable offence, then the governor should be impeached.
He stated, “If you have committed an offence to be Impeached, what’s wrong? Is it a criminal offence? It’s provided in the constitution. And let me tell you, and I have heard people say, ‘oh, if they impeach him, there’ll be breakdown’ and all that.
“Rubbish. Nonsense. Who is he? Nonsense! Tell me who are the militants? Who is not a militant? Who is born as a militant? No, tell me the person that’s born. The day you were given birth to, they say you’re a militant.
“Who is not a militant? Who cannot blow up the pipeline? Why do you arrogate this power to a certain group of people? The Ijaw people are the only people who can blow a pipeline? What nonsense is that? Who told you Ogoni people cannot break pipeline?
“Who told you Ikwerre people cannot blow up pipeline? Who told you Ekpeye people cannot blow up pipelines? Who is the one doing the contract of the pipeline? Is he not an Ijaw son? Is he not Tompolo. Is it not a Tantita? They gave you that to do surveillance.
“And the same Ijaw people are going to blow a pipeline and somebody will hear that? That’s crap. The moment I hear that, to hell. How dare you threaten a country? How dare you? The threat does not exist. These are political things planted by some people in government.
“Look, all of us know ourselves. You make an appointment of MD of NDDC, they threaten, they will blow pipeline. You make an appointment here, they threaten, they blow pipeline. What kind of country are we in?
“As a sitting president, you’re threatening me that if you follow what the court said, I will blow up everywhere. Let the whole country be blown up. People must learn. Enough is enough! You don’t tell anybody that.”
The minister warned the Ijaw ethnic group against threatening the peace in Rivers State with the threat to blow up pipelines in the event the governor, who is of Ijaw stock, was impeached, saying the Ijaw do not constitute the majority in the Niger Delta.
Wike SAID, “People must speak the truth. Heaven will not fall. You only die once, not two times. Let me say something and people should have that right: the Ijaw does not constitute the majority of the Niger Delta. Every day you wake up, Ijaw will do this.
“In Akwa Ibom, Ijaw cannot be governor. In Delta, Ijaw is minority of the minority. With all due respect to our late elder statesman, Henry Clark, he’s from Delta. He had never produced an Ijaw man to be governor of Delta. The only place Ijaw can solely be governor is Bayelsa State.
“Not in Edo, not in Rivers. It’s minority of the minorities. Out of our own benevolence, live and let’s live. If it is by strength, it cannot be the Ogonis. It cannot be the Ekpeyes. It cannot be the Ikwerres. It cannot. Every time you hear this, Ijaw said this, Ijaw just didn’t say this.
“What kind of system are we talking about? In fact, when I brought this governor, they said, he is not the real Ijaw, that if they are taking about real Ijaws, it should come to the Kalabaris, that how can you say if they want to give power to Ijaws, it should it should be the Opobo.
“You see the problem that we’re in. And you close your eyes, you did it. All those who fought me, who said, no, we cannot accept this, are the ones parading themselves, hanging around him, taking his money.”
Wike claimed PANDEF could sell people for money.
He stated, “These leaders, look at the comments they have made. Mr. President intervened in this matter. Vice President was there. National Security Adviser was there. National Security Adviser signed for implementation of peace. This same PANDEF came out and said Mr. President has no right. They took Mr. President to court.
“People like Chief Sara-Igbe, one of the worst persons you can ever think of. One of the political merchants. I know them. King Diete-Spiff, whom I respected, went to Government House. Look at the statement he made. ‘I’m an Ijaw man. You’re an Ijaw man. Call us, we’ll be with you’.
“An elder statesman would go and make such a statement? Now you are the same person coming again now to go and meet Mr. President to intervene. Intervene what? Mr. President that has no right? Mr. President that he took to court, that he has no power to intervene?
“They took Mr. President to court from the State High Court in Rivers State to the Court of Appeal, they lost. Now down to Supreme Court. Now people do things, they don’t want to go back to let people know the correct thing.
“Now, Supreme Court has given judgement, and you are going to tell the president to do what? That president should do what? That Supreme Court’s judgement should not be obeyed?”
On the drama that played out at the legislature, Fubara had alongside some of his cabinet members visited the lawmakers at the Assembly quarters along Aba Road, the temporary location for their sittings, but met a locked gate.
That followed a recent Supreme Court judgement ordering the governor to re-present the 2025 appropriation bill to the Assembly led by Amaewhule.
Tinubu had also, while addressing political leaders from the state, told Fubara to adhere to the rule of law, insisting that he must respect the court judgement for lasting peace and prosperity of the state.
Fubara had severally stated that he would implement the judgement of the Supreme Court in the interest of the state. He had also sent a letter to the Assembly leadership seeking a reconciliation meeting.
But on getting to the temporary venue for the Assembly sittings on Wednesday, the gate was under lock and key, with no sign of anyone in the premises to receive the governor.
Disappointed with the development, Fubara said, “I am here this morning with a few members of the Executive Council to comply with the Supreme Court judgement.
“Before my arrival I had already made several attempts with my phone calls to reach the Speaker and other House members. I also gave them a letter personally, which was transmitted to the Speaker for this particular visit.
“But it’s unfortunate that at the gate you can see that the place is completely sealed and there is no sign that anything is going to happen today.
“The reason why we are doing this, I have always said it, is in the interest of our people, which is the most important thing. Well, I don’t think there is anything to worry about, maybe they are working on the letter. I expect to hear from them very soon.”
Responding to Fubara, the lawmakers denied that they received any official communication from the governor indicating his interest to bring his appropriation bill to the floor of the House.
Spokesperson of the House and Chairman, House Committee on Information, Dr Enemi Alabo-George, described the claims of the governor as a mere comedy skit.
George recalled that on March 3, the House of Assembly wrote to the governor requesting him to bring the 2025 appropriation bill to the lawmakers following the judgement of the Supreme Court.
“We were the ones, who immediately after that judgement appealed to the governor to bring his appropriation bill. We acted immediately because we have the interest of the state at heart and didn’t want Rivers people to suffer any harm.
“Despite withholding our entitlements for over a year and demolishing our chambers, we still wanted him to hasten up the presentation in the interest of the progress of Rivers.
“We indicated our intentions in that letter and even gave him a timeframe because of the urgency of the matter. To regularise his appointments, we also urged him during our subsequent sitting to submit the names of his nominees for the positions of commissioners and some boards’ membership for screening and confirmation.
“But the governor rebuffed our pleas. We sent employees of the Assembly to deliver these resolutions to him but as usual they turned them down at the gate and even brutalised them. We resorted to engaging the services of a courier company.
“He still did not heed our call forgetting that there are essential services like hospitals, schools and others to be funded. Our intention was to finish everything about the budget on March 15th so that we could send necessary information and documents to relevant agencies of the government to allow the release of Rivers allocations at the end of March. But with what he is doing, we don’t know what he wants to achieve.
“How can he turn around to claim that we blocked him from re-presenting his budget? This is the height of sincerity. We even need the budget to be passed because the governor has been owing us our entitlements for more than a year and without the budget we can’t get our entitlements.
“The governor and his team simply and deliberately acted Wednesday’s drama with a singular motive to tarnish the image of the Assembly. The governor is simply playing to the gallery to whip up unnecessary sentiments. But it has backfired because the truth has come out.”
PANDEF, while reacting to the development, described the action of the Amaewhule-led Assembly as provocative.
A chieftain of PANDEF, Chief Anabs Sara-Igbe, said denying the governor access to the Assembly complex was not an insult to Siminalayi Fubara as a person, but to the people of Rivers State in general.
“The Governor was elected by millions of Rivers people. As the chief executive officer of the state, he has unhindered access to all the facilities within the state. Blocking him from entering the complex is a direct insult and embarrassment to the people of Rivers State.
“It is now very clear that the governor is ready for peace. But these people are not ready for peace. You can see that by their action. How can you bar a sitting governor from gaining access to a facility that belongs to the state as a chief executive officer ofG that the governor continues to tow the path of peace despite the insult and provocation.
“I appeal that he implements all the decisions stipulated by the Supreme Court judgment, even though, I did not agree with some of those decisions. Let him implement them. Rivers people are watching, the world is watching,” he said.
Sara-Igbe noted that Fubara has always wanted peace, adding, “That was why on the advice of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he withdrew the case he had against these lawmakers last year even when they refused to withdraw theirs.”
